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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., prior to testifying before the committee's hearing on the difficulties plaguing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill. Sebelius, President Barack Obama's top health official faced tough questioning by a congressional committee Wednesday that will demand she explain how the administration stumbled so badly in its crippled online launch of the president's health care overhaul. / Evan Vucci/Associated Press

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WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finally went before Congress to testify about the troubled Oct. 1 launch of the Affordable Care Act website, facing down a committee chairman from west Michigan who insisted officials either “did not know how bad the situation was or they did not disclose it.”

U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, a St. Joseph Republican, led the questioning today as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and asked her about the launch of HealthCare.gov, the enrollment website for mandatory health insurance that has been beset with errors, delays and other glitches.

“This was supposed to be the easy part,” Upton said.

Sebelius answered a series of questions that includedthose from U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Howell Republican, who asserted that information submitted on the website may not be secure. He read from a memo that he said raised doubts about the site before it was launched.

The memo from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the website, provided for the site to operate for six months while concerns were addressed about it being exposed “to a level of uncertainty that can be deemed as a high risk.” Sebelius didn’t speak about specific testing but said security worries are being looked at.

Sebelius said fixes are being made to the website but refused to embrace any suggestion that the individual mandate be delayed.

“I am as frustrated and angry as anyone,” Sebelius said. “We’re working day and night and will continue until it’s fixed.”

In prepared testimony, Upton said he spoke to a woman from Buchanan, in southwestern Michigan, who “was excited to sign up, but has since become disillusioned after spending hours on the phone and website with little success.”

He and other Republicans also complained that some people who must now get insurance through the state exchanges are seeing higher premiums, even though President Barack Obama once said that Americans who liked their insurance could keep it.

Sebelius made clear — with an assist from U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, a former chairman of the committee and the longest-serving member of the House — that while insurance plans drawn up before 2010 and continued were not subject to ACA requirements, many plans — including those for people with employee coverage — change every year.

Any health plans that were changed had to meet the ACA requirements, and those requirements led some insurers to increase costs. Some of those costs, however, could be covered by government subsidies.